Flights remain cancelled as Jet Airways strike continues

As many as 150 Jet Airways flights, including 15 international, remained cancelled on Friday, the fourth day of the ongoing strike by the airline pilots. A spokesperson said early on Friday that the airline has announced plans to cancel around 30 flights on certain sectors which will either be combined or re-booked. These include services on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Mumbai-Vadodra, Mumbai-Mangalore, Mumbai-Bengaluru, Mumbai-Kochi, Mumbai-Chennai and Mumbai-Bhopal sectors in the western region. In the eastern region, the airline will operate services on the Kolkata-Jorhat, and Kolkata-Agartala sectors. In the northern region, it plans to operate services on the Delhi-Amritsar, Delhi-Udaipur sectors. In the southern region, services shall be operated on the Chennai-Coimbatore sectors.

However, important metro sectors like the Mumbai-Delhi, Chennai-Delhi, Kolkata-Delhi and Mumbai-Kolkata remained crippled for the fourth day, inconveniencing passengers. The airline on Thursday had cancelled nearly 240 services across the network as over 500 pilots reported 'sick.' However, the National Aviators Guild (NAG) expressed its willingness to resume duties if the four pilots sacked by the airline management are re-instated. The striking pilots are to hold talks with the chief labour commissioner and the management in New Delhi Friday. So far, the four-day strike has led to the cancellation of nearly 700 flights, causing hardship to over 28,000 passengers.